Tech Talk: Think critically about printers

The printer used to be a critical piece of the computing and productivity experience.

Bulky and noisy, large printers of yore are right up there with monstrous CRTs as iconic ’80s and ’90s relics.

However, the mobile and cloud revolution has essentially put personal information and reference materials on-demand in the palm of our hands.

Does the printer still have a place in the home office?

Problem with printers

A few months ago, my trusty budget all-in-one printer/scanner/fax gave up the ghost.

I was sure I could get by without a home printer. A smartphone with a data connection means that any information in my email, apps or cloud services is always available. What would I need to print?

With no printer, I could reclaim some space on my desk and free up a power outlet.

Printers are a pretty expensive endeavor relative to the small price users pay to buy into it. Companies have gotten worse with the “you can’t print magenta until you replace cyan” shenanigans and seem to actively look for ways to get you to buy more astronomically expensive ink.

I surveyed official black and color replacement ink costs for three sub-$60 sale printers at a local electronics retailer and all were above $35 a set. High-yield cartridges cost even more. I certainly wouldn’t miss paying those prices.

However, I discovered that while I was more or less ready to move past a printer, the rest of my world definitely wasn’t.

Almost immediately after tossing my broken printer, the requests for printing projects came in.

Family who didn’t want to use a digital ticketing app needed Twins tickets printed out. An activity book page got ripped and my child wanted a new copy. A family member needed copies of a resume printed out for an interview.

I even discovered small uses for my printer that I took for granted, like printing out labels or pages for personal projects. The scanning functions also are useful for archiving photos and documents.

I begrudgingly began the search for a new printer.

Considerations

The first choice a user needs to make when selecting a printer is between inkjet or laser.

Inkjet printers are usually cheaper up front, can print color well and can print to a variety of paper/material types. Laser printers, which use toner instead of inkjet cartridges, cost more up front, but are faster and can be less expensive than inkjet in the long run, since toner generally prints more pages less expensively than replacement inkjet cartridges.

If you can live without printing color, laser is a great option. Monochrome laser printers will save you money over time for users heavily printing black and white documents.

Users who need color have more of a decision to make, since color laser printers are a bit more expensive. Inkjets also are considered better at photos, so that might be the way to go if you aren’t a high volume printer that needs color.

If you go inkjet, be sure to consider the ink replacement costs in your purchasing decision. A cheap printer won’t save you any money if replacement ink costs almost as much as the unit itself. Also, some printers come with a low-capacity “starter pack” of cartridges in the box, so plan on replacing those earlier.

Finally, use customer reviews liberally when researching a printer to buy. Scorned users are not shy about pointing out any schemes a printer may try to pull, like restricting printing until all ink is replaced or bugging users too much about how much ink is left in the cartridges. Good printers also are rare enough that even satisfied users seem to take the time to let others know when they’ve found a keeper.

This is the opinion of Times Digital Products Specialist Andrew Fraser. Follow him on Twitter @AndrewFraser.